Fiancée of US Treasury Secretary nominee is 'white saviour' author

Excerpt of actress's memoirs was pulled from The Telegraph and labelled false by Zambian High Commission.

Louise Linton, the fiancée of Treasury nominee Steven Mnuchin, was condemned for fabricating parts of her storyGetty Images/Reuters

The fiancée of Treasury nominee Steven Mnuchin was denounced this year for casting herself as what some called a "white saviour" in an inaccuracy-riddled memoir about her time in Zambia as a teenager.

Actress Louise Linton pulled her self-published 290 page book In Congo's Shadow — recounting six months she spent in the southern African nation in 1999 — from sale after she was roundly condemned for fabricating parts of her story.

The Zambian High Commission in London accused her of "tarnishing the image of a very friendly and peaceful country" with her "falsified" memoirs and The Telegraph was forced to retract an excerpt from her book.

In the excerpt, published 1 July, Linton describes how as an 18-year-old girl she hid in the Zambian bush from armed Congolese rebels. "My gap year had become a living nightmare when I inadvertently found myself caught up in the fringes of the Congolese War," she wrote.

"As the night ticked interminably by, I tried not to think what the rebels would do to the 'skinny white muzungu with long angel hair' if they found me," she wrote, describing how "gunshots echoed through the bush and seemed to be getting closer."

Two hours had passed - maybe three. I couldn’t tell. The dense jungle canopy above me had eliminated what little moonlight there was and plunged me into inky blackness deep in the Zambian bush. I lay very still, listening for the armed rebels and wondering how long it was until daybreak, not knowing if I’d survive to see it.

- Louise Linton

Problem is, none of it happened and the story prompted the hashtag #LintonLies to start trending on Twitter.

A man name Gerard Zytkow, who lived near where Linton volunteered, came forward to contradict her claims. "At no time ever were there any armed personnel/soldiers of any kind (other than a few game guards who were issued with very small rifles) within the boundaries of the park [where her lodge was located]," Zytkow told BuzzFeed News.

Linton, an actress known for roles in films like Cabin Fever and television shows Cold Case and CSI: NY, later apologised. "The author also announced that she had agreed to remove the book from sale and give the profits to charity, and issued an apology for the offence caused," a statement released by the Telegraph said.

Now her fiancé, Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive and finance director for President-elect Trump's presidential campaign, has been nominated by the Republican to become Secretary of the Treasury.

"Steve Mnuchin is the Forrest Gump of the financial crisis — he managed to participate in all the worst practices of Wall Street," said Senator Elizabeth Warren of Mnuchin's nomination. "His selection as Treasury Secretary should send shivers down the spine of every American who got hit hard by the financial crisis, and the latest sign that Donald Trump has no intention of draining the swamp."

In an interview on CNBC, Mnuchin said that "by cutting corporate taxes, we'll create huge economic growth and we'll have huge personal income, so the revenues will be offset on the other side.

Trump called him "a world-class financier, banker and businessman" who has "played a key role in developing our plan to build a dynamic, booming economy that will create millions of jobs."